Immigration to our shores is running at record levels and so too is the boom in illegal immigrants.

Some are scamming permanent residency is to catch and marry single Aussies. Immigration officials are cracking down on fake marriages, but sometimes impossible to know when love is true or false.

Over the last ten years spousal visa applications to Australia jumped from 26,000 to 40,000 a year. Many phoney fiancés and spouses were kicked out last year.

Less than three per cent of applicants are investigated.

The process requires foreign spouses to live with their partner for two years and they may be tested on their truthfulness by the Bona Fide units, set up in states across the country.

Differentiating between love and fraud is not a given, what we are interested in determining is that the evidence and the paperwork and the documentation put before us is true and accurate that it is not a forged document.

They’re even more brazen in India where migration agents and internet surfers state plainly what they want, with posts including: “Paper marriage for Australia” and “Looking for a girl to do a paper marriage just to get residency in Australia.”

The Times of India newspaper detailed how brides and grooms are contracted to marry, just so they can move here.

If they are operating in India, or in China, or in Canada, or in the UK or anywhere overseas, our laws don’t control their activities

Act, under visa fraud it can include cancellation of the visa, and ultimately removal from the country. In the least we can refuse and we often do in 3000 instances to grant a visa in the last financial year.